Several epidemiological studies have examined the association between risk
factors and overall mortality. Most of these studies, however, focus on a risk
factor at a time. The UK Biobank project represents a unique opportunity for
an unbiased comprehensive assessment of risk factors for short-term mortality
in the general population. This research project aims to investigate the
association between a variety of exposures assessed in the UK Biobank and
two-years mortality. Moreover, we aim to build and validate a risk score for
prediction of two-year mortality using data mining techniques.
To maximize the chance to discover new predictors, we would like to include
as many data points as possible, both from in-person testing measurements, as
well as questionnaires. However, no genetic or biochemistry assessment would
be included, as these variables will not become available until 2015. This also
implies that no biological samples are analysed, but we will only use
information already collected in the UK Biobank.
The primary analyses will be performed on all-cause mortality. In secondary
analyses, we will also test the score on specific causes of death (cancer
mortality; cardiovascular mortality; other causes).
The full UK Biobank cohort is going to be used for this project, independently
of the health status of the participants. However, health information at
baseline (e.g. if the participants have been admitted to hospital or have
experienced a major health disorder) will be included in the analysis to
improve the ability to obtain accurate predictions. We hope to find
unexpected predictors leading to new biological knowledge and new avenues
for primary prevention, and to improve the possibilities to target individuals at
highest risk for medical intervention.
We plan to include the full cohort in our analysis